Coursework been sent to exam board as a possible case of plagiarism

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Wait? Undergraduate? University? BUT... Exam board? Maybe I'm being stupid but I thought that universities just marked student's work themselves. And also decided any sanctions themselves...

Reply 21

SophiaKeuning

Just a quick, slightly paranoid question; do they make a big deal if you nick two lines from a book and put it in your coursework?

Anyway, OP, I'm sorry but I can't really offer advice. Doesn't sound too good though. :redface:

Reply 22

ninja-lewis

Original post by SmallTownGirl

Wait? Undergraduate? University? BUT... Exam board? Maybe I'm being stupid but I thought that universities just marked student's work themselves. And also decided any sanctions themselves...

The internal Board of Examiners for the course. They will take into account any special circumstances and decide your final mark.

Reply 23

Illmatic511

Thanks for the feedback guys, obviously I didn't come here looking for definite answers; I just wanted to see what other people think. I am really hoping that they won't do anything beyond give a 0 mark for the piece of coursework in question, because if they were to make me re take the year or kick me out that would be university over for me unfortunately.

Reply 24

Eclectic Styles

Original post by Wookie42

QFR

Original post by Joe-91

Oh and just in case any cretin like Wookie wants to have a go for using wikipedia, he actually had every right because the poster was based on a very recent event.

Wookiepedia*

Geddit? GEDDIT? *wink wink nudge nudge*

Reply 25

theronkinator

I know people 'caught', but they'd simply done a bit of work at the same time so had similar things, they'd not just copied a site. They just got a warning and the marks capped at 40%, if they'd copied a site and not mentioned it then I think they'd have been in more trobule.

Reply 26

High As A Kite

LOL uni undergrads and still using copy + paste !

Reply 27

username457532

Original post by ninja-lewis

The internal Board of Examiners for the course. They will take into account any special circumstances and decide your final mark.

Oh right. Thanks. I did wonder why no-one else had picked up on it...

Reply 28

Illmatic511

Original post by danmart1n

If it's copied and pasted, it's plagiarism, and if it's plagiarism, you're screwed.
I didn't think there were still people around these days dense enough to actually plagiarise Wikipedia.

Answers like this are no help - what do you mean by screwed?

Is there any chance they might make me re do the year or straight kick me out? given the circumstances.

Unlucky.

You'l get off lightly as its your first year. They'l make a big deal out of it to teach you a lesson, and then they will probably fail the assignment and make you do it again. They might go as far as failing the module but It doesn't matter really as the first year doesn't count.

At uni they demand a much higher standard of copy & pasting: you need to wrap quotation marks round it and stick (author,year) at the end. Then create a list with all the sources you plagiarised from sorry I mean referenced.

The list is the annoying bit as theres some stupid syntax you got to follow but this makes it easier:
http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/reference-book.htm

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 31

Illmatic511

I absolutely have to pass the module, otherwise you fail they year. Don't worry, I know how to reference, my grade in this particular module is fairly high and I have never had any other issues with referencing.

This was the last assignment in a module we had both passed already, we did a very sloppy job and communication was pretty dire. I had no idea that he had straight copy and pasted from wikipedia, if I did, I would of obviously brought it up with him and helped to put it in our own words and reference it correctly.

Reply 32

gozatron

Have you copies it word for word or paraphrased it?

Reply 33

Charlski

Never, ever, ever use wikipedia for ANYTHING at university. It doesn't matter if it's a recent event, wikipedia is seriously frowned upon. We have always been told by our lecturers that anything with information from wikipedia in it will be automatically graded as a 0. Wiki is great for giving you ideas and basic information, but you then need to go and find an academic source with that information which you can then quote. Newspapers/news websites are a good source of information and quotes for recent events.

If this piece of work involves not only plagiarism, but also stuff plagiarised from wikipedia, you're not looking at coming off too well. Hopefully you'll just get a warning and a zero mark.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 34

Illmatic511

Original post by gozatron

Have you copies it word for word or paraphrased it?

He copied much of his word for word, luckily what I edited that was in my section - I paraphrased some of it.

Our tutor said that using wikipedia slightly would be fine, in fact, he told us it would be hard to avoid in this case. Considering we were allowed to use blogs, wikipedia was OK.

Reply 35

Charlski

What kind of project actually is this that you can use sources which could be completely made up/factually incorrect?

Reply 36

Illmatic511

A poster on a natural disaster. Facts and figures, I actually tried to take from more reliable sources such as the BBC and the UN.

Reply 37

2ndClass

Oh please forgetting to mention one website isn't the end of the world.

Reply 38

in_vogue

I know this isn't helpful OP, but I just cant get over how stupid your mate was. Plagiarising wikipedia? That's the FIRST place lecturers are going to check for any plagiarism.

Reply 39

Illmatic511

I just hope that I won't have to re do a year or get kicked out. I am assuming people get kicked out mainly for intentional cheating like buying coursework.